Kimberly Bergalis Is Dead at 23; Symbol of Debate Over AIDS Tests

By BRUCE LAMBERT

Published: December 9, 1991

Kimberly Bergalis, who stirred a national debate over AIDS testing when she became the first known case of a patient contracting the virus from a health care worker, died yesterday at her home in Fort Pierce, Fla. She was 23 years old.

Her lawyer, Robert Montgomery, announced her death from the disease. He quoted her father as saying, "Kimberly is not going to suffer anymore."

Ms. Bergalis became the poignant symbol of a scientific mystery and a continuing debate over the risk of infection in health care settings and what to do about it.

"This is a testimony to the disgraceful practice of health-care professionals who put their patients' lives in jeopardy by continuing to perform invasive procedures when they are infected," Mr. Montgomery said.

But others said that Ms. Bergalis stirred unwarranted panic and that her case diverted attention from the far more common spread of the disease by unprotected sex and the sharing of tainted needles by drug abusers.

On television and in interviews, she and her embittered family campaigned for mandatory testing of health workers for the virus that causes AIDS so that patients could decide whether to continue treatment by practitioners who test positive for H.I.V. The Centers for Disease Control said she apparently contracted AIDS from her dentist, but the exact manner is still unclear.

"Someone who has AIDS and continues to practice is nothing better than a murderer," said her father, George. The Bergalis family also urged testing of patients to protect doctors.

In a dramatic moment, the frail Ms. Bergalis was wheeled into a Capitol hearing room in October to support a bill for such policies.

"I did not do anything wrong, yet I am being made to suffer like this," she whispered. "My life has been taken away. Please enact legislation so that no other patient or health care provider will have to go through the hell that I have." Debate Over Restrictions

Spurred by the public uproar, the Federal Centers for Disease Control proposed barring infected health workers from procedures in which H.I.V. might be transmitted. But the legislation stalled, and the centers backed off under opposition from state and local health officials, medical societies and advocates for AIDS patients.

Opponents of the proposed regulation argued that the Florida case remained an anomaly, that thousands of patients of other doctors with H.I.V. were tested and found uninfected, and that new rules were not needed. They said the proposals would unfairly destroy the careers of infected health workers and waste millions of dollars that would be better spent on other AIDS preventives.

Ms. Bergalis traced her infection to her dentist, Dr. David J. Acer of Stuart, Fla. He was a bisexual who continued practicing dentistry several years after learning he was infected with H.I.V. There was no rule obligating him to tell patients.

When Ms. Bergalis's case was diagnosed, Dr. Acer told health investigators that he did not believe he had infected anyone. But he finally notified his patients anyway, announcing his illness just before he died on Sept. 3, 1990.

Testing of hundreds of his patients found four more who were infected with the same strain of H.I.V. as his and who had no other risks for the disease in their lives.

Experts still question how those infections occurred. The most common speculations are that Dr. Acer bled from a cut in his hands or used instruments that had punctured his skin or were not sterilized after use on another infected patient. Co-workers and patients gave conflicting statements on the cleanliness of his technique.

Early in the case, Ms. Bergalis was offended that investigators doubted her insistence that she never had intercourse or used drugs. Epidemiologists often find that people with AIDS conceal their behavior.

What finally convinced health officials was a laboratory analysis of the virus, whose mutations produce varied strains, showing that the samples from Dr. Acer and Ms. Bergalis were virtually identical.

To settle a suit, Ms. Bergalis collected $1 million from Dr. Acer's estate and an undisclosed sum from his insurance company. But her crusade continued. 'You've Ruined My Life'

"Do I blame myself? I sure don't," she wrote in a letter, addressed to Florida health officials, that her family made public this summer. "I never used I.V. drugs, never slept with anyone and never had a blood transfusion. I blame Dr. Acer and every single one of you bastards. Anyone who knew Dr. Acer was infected and had full-blown AIDS and stood by not doing a damn thing about it. You are all just as guilty as he was. You've ruined my life and my family's. If laws are not formed to provide protection, then my suffering and death was in vain." She concluded: "I'm dying, guys. Goodbye."

Her case jolted many who assumed they were not susceptible to AIDS but suddenly worried about risks from doctors, dentists and nurses. The case also renewed concern for safeguards against lapses like an unsterile scapel that could pass the virus from one patient to another and the accidental needle sticks that have infected dozens of health workers.

Ms. Bergalis was born in Tamaqua, Pa., and moved to Florida at the age of 10 with her family. Her father is the city finance director of Fort Pierce. Her mother, Anna, is a public health nurse and, in 1989, was the first to suspect that her daughter was seriously ill when Kimberly came home on a vacation from college.

Ms. Bergalis is also survived by two sisters, Allison and Sondra of Fort Pierce, and her grandparents, Bernard and Helen Bergalis of Tamaqua.

Photo: Kimberly Bergalis at her home in Fort Pierce, Fla., in February. (Susan Greenwood)